Killing Caught on Tape

The Wire depicts in raw detail and dialogue gritty crime scenes in the mean streets of Baltimore. But those scenes are fictional. Testimony in court last week included dialogue of how a murder went down in DC—but it was real. The story was captured by Homicide Watch DC, a website featured in The Washingtonian’s February issue.

When four people confronted Kevin BlackwellJr. last December intending to rob him, he must have dialed 9-1-1, which led to this recording:

“Stab this nigga up.”

“Work his pockets.”

“Give me your phone.”

“Come up off that North Face, cuz.”

“Get in the fucking car. . . . C’mon, before the police show up.”

“Nah, son, I’m ’bout to stab this nigga up.”

Kevin Blackwell is no longer around to describe how he called 9-1-1. He was stabbed to death during the course of the robbery. The tape of his killing was played in DC Superior Court Friday during a hearing in the prosecution of Harold Proctor, one of four people believed to have taken part in the murder. Proctor and Christopher Williams are both in custody and have been charged with first-degree murder.

According to charging documents and reports published on Homicide Watch DC, Blackwell, 20, had robbed Proctor and others to set off the chain of events. A woman had set up that initial robbery, according to testimony in court. She then suggested Proctor and others seek out Blackwell and “get money.” She and the others hopped into a beige Cadillac on December 17. She directed them to Blackwell’s house in Southeast DC, according to police reports. She then lured Blackwell outside.

The men then set upon Blackwell in what prosecutors called “a revenge killing.”

When Blackwell realized he was in danger, he must have phoned Maryland 9-1-1, according to police reports, and a dispatcher in Prince George’s County recorded the call. DC detectives identified the phone and used GPS to trace it to Proctor’s home in Upper Marlboro. Police found Blackwell’s cell phone and his North Face jacket in Proctor’s home. They arrested Proctor.

Police have indicated Wayne Antwon Jackson is also wanted in connection with the murder.

It is rare for dialogue around a murder to be recorded and then played in court.

Assistant US Attorney Stephen Gripkey, the prosecutor in the case, called the stabbing “cruel” and “heinous,” according to Homicide Watch, and that Blackwell had been “hunted down.”

The charging documents do not mention the woman who set up the first robbery and directed the alleged killers to Blackwell.